The World of Religion. I'm Douglas Edwards, CBS News, reporting on the CBS radio network. This week on The World of Religion, the Hare Krishna movement, a new Catholic diocese in North Carolina, a Christmas journey to Southeast Asia, a police chaplain discusses his work, and black nuns talk about black liberation. As you walk the streets of some of America's larger cities, you will occasionally come upon a group of people garbed in apparel which makes you think of India.

The heads of the men will be shaven, with just one streamer of hair remaining. The group will be carrying out a slow shuffling dance to the tune of the Hare Kṛṣṇa chant. The International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is one of a number of new religious experiences which are attracting increasing attention in the United States. Rupanuga Das is a former New York City social worker.

Today, he dedicates his life to the Krishna consciousness. Rupanuga tells us how the Hare Krishna movement began in the United States. Our spiritual master arrived in the United States in 1965. At that time, his divine grace had with him about 200 scriptures, the Srimad Bhagavatam, and seven dollars.

He was sent here on a mission to the Western world by his spiritual master to teach Krishna consciousness in the Western world. Our spiritual master is 75 years old, and he is His Divine Grace, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is the 32nd spiritual master in a line of disciplic succession that extends back in history 5,000 years without a break. This disciplic succession has carried the teachings of the Veda to the present intact without any contamination.

We asked Rupanuga about the role of music in Hare Krishna. The music accompanies the mantra, the maha mantra. Maha means great, and mantra means mind-releasing sound vibration that releases one from the material conception that we have of ourselves. We think we're these bodies, for example.

So by chanting Hare Krishna, now, Hare is addressing all the energy of the Lord, of God. and Krishna is God Himself. You know, God is omnipotent. Omnipotent means that His name, His pastimes, His paraphernalia, all these are the same as He, all the same potency. So when we say Krishna, it is Krishna incarnate.

And Rama is another name of God, meaning the great enjoyer. So Hare Krishna and Rama make up the mantra Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, all the names of God. Some members of Hare Krishna adopt garments typical of an Asian monk, shave their heads, and eat an essentially vegetarian diet. Rupanuga explains that Krishna consciousness means more than simply meditation.

We give our life, we surrender our life, our money, our intelligence, and our words, everything we give, because we understand that everything, in order to be, in order to be peace, in order to have peace in the world, everything must be God-centered. That's why, say, something like the United Nations has been so slow or practically empty of any real result. Because for so many years we've been calling for unity. But this is false because we are already united on the spiritual platform.

We simply have to recognize that. That this verse explains that one who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks in quality one with the Lord becomes a true knower of things. What is there as illusion or anxiety for him? So we begin to see things on a spiritual platform and not simply the level of passion or ignorance.

And then we can see things in the proper light. This is what enlightenment means, to see things spiritually, to see each other spiritually as souls and not as just bodies. In a sense, members of the Hare Krishna have their equivalent of the Christian Bible. We have the Bhagavad Gita as it is.

This is the introduction to Krishna consciousness. and the second chapter begins with the differentiation between the body and the soul and proceeds from there how are we not these bodies, these temporary bodies and we're eternal, our consciousness is eternal and then this proceeds scientifically, progressively in bhakti yoga to the Srimad Bhagavatam the beautiful story of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that is the graduate study and then there's the post-graduate study the Chaitanya Chaitamitra this describes the immortal nature of the living force. Rupanuga also talks about the type of people who are attracted to the Krishna consciousness. All kinds of people, all walks of life, all backgrounds, all religious backgrounds, all educational backgrounds. There's no material qualification for becoming Krishna consciousness, engaging in Krishna consciousness.

There's no impediment, no material impediment, because it's our normal, natural existence. Members of Hare Krishna decorate their foreheads with a white symbol which extends from the center of the forehead straight down to the bridge of the nose. Rupanuga explains this symbolism. That white mark, the two lines with the point at the bottom, is called tilak.

It's water and clay. And it sanctifies the body as a temple, this physical tabernacle, as a temple to God, to Krishna. And it signifies that a person who wears that is God-conscious, Krishna-conscious, and he is a devotee of the Lord. Now, the clothing, this is a traditional sign of the Vaishnava, the servant of God, and it is easily identifiable.

We're preachers, we're missionaries. Of course, it does not require that anyone who wants to be Krishna conscious or practice Krishna consciousness, he doesn't have to dress like that. He can wear a coat and tie and go to the office, as many of our devotees do. But it easily signifies us that if someone sees us they know that if they want to know about Krishna that they can approach us.

We asked Rupanuga about the growth of the Hare Krishna movement. The growth has really been an explosion in just five years where our spiritual masters started in a very small storefront on Second Avenue in the Lower East Side, the East Village where there was a very large youth culture growing, drug culture and some searching, seeking going on philosophically and everyone flocked there and in a very short time from that one storefront we have 70 centers now around the world Rupanuga a former New York City social worker who has adopted the philosophy of the Hare Krishna people modern day men and women seeking spiritual solace in the ancient teachings of the Indian subcontinent a newly named bishop for a newly established diocese this report from Frank Richardson I'm stationed up.